I have someone in mind for the job of food-safety czar. It’s Bill Marler of Marler Clark Law firm. Actually Hillary might already know Marler, a plaintiff attorney specializing in food-borne diseases. Marler was among the coalition of experts who helped create a new system after the E-Coli outbreak early in Bill Clinton’s first administration. The new president was delivering a televised town meeting when a couple whose child ate some of that contaminated meat spoke up. That child later died.

I worked with former President Bill Clinton to arrange congressional hearings and victim testimony after the Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak in 1993. What we needed – and still need – was change in our food safety system. Significant change.

What we got then was a classification of E. coli O157:H7 as an adulterant in meat products. A good step in the right direction. What we need now is a single agency responsible for food safety – one that has the power to shut down processing plants and recall contaminated food products, among other things.

“Bill Marler: Food Safety Czar” does have a nice ring to it, but since I don’t think my wife and kids would let me move them to Washington, D.C. here’s my offer: When the Democrats win the Whitehouse and create a single food safety agency, and when companies stop poisoning people, I’ll stop calling for Congressional hearings on food safety and asking the food industry to “put me out of business.”